Proliferation of hazardous biological and chemical warfare agents has resulted in the need to develop countervailing compositions, methods and devices for destroying, or at least rendering ineffective, such agents. One important consideration in developing such compositions, methods and devices is that the chemical and biological agents must be destroyed in such a way so as to preclude or minimize the dispersing of the chemical or biological agents into the environment to thus avoid collateral damage.
The art has recognized this need and there have been attempts to provide solutions to this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,945,175, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a weapon including a warhead filled with a two-stage intermetallic high-temperature incendiary device. The composition includes intermetallic constituents and an oxidizer, such as lithium perchlorate or sodium chlorate, to produce oxygen to generate oxides of the intermetallic constituents with addition of heat release. The oxidizer may also generate a biocide as a product of the reaction to defeat chemical and biological agents. The payload of the warhead also includes a plurality of bomblets for penetrating tanks, containers and other enclosures hold the biological and chemical agents, so that the high temperature reactants of the fill, including the biocide can react with the agents.